Antisemitic flyers falsely claiming the U.S. COVID-19 response is a Jewish conspiracy have been found in San Francisco, not long after similar discoveries in other cities across the country.
The San Francisco Police Department told KCBS Radio in an emailed statement on Monday afternoon that officers "located multiple flyers" containing antisemitic language in the city's Pacific Heights neighborhood on Sunday, following reports from residents. Approximately 20 flyers were found on Union Street between Scott and Broderick streets on Sunday morning, KNTV and KTVU reported.
An unnamed Jewish couple shared one of the flyers with KNTV, which trafficked in tropes and false, antisemtic allegations that Jews control government, financial and media institutions.
The flyer pointed to the religious backgrounds of more than a dozen high-ranking employees and executives at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Department of Health and Human Services and the investment management company BlackRock, among other institutions, as supposed proof that the "COVID agenda is Jewish."
It also linked to a video platform run by the GDL, a group the Anti-Defamation League says is "a small network of virulently antisemitic provocateurs." The group is run by Petaluma resident Jon Minadeo, who operates online under the username "Handsome Truth" and has organized a number of antisemitic stunts.
In 2018, the group paid a number of celebrities on Cameo to record videos with coded antisemitic language and apparent endorsements of the group. In 2020, Minadeo flew antisemitic banners in Los Angeles.
The flyers were also distributed in Pasadena and Beverly Hills late last year, as well as Miami Beach and Surfside, Florida on Sunday.
"The organization referenced in the antisemitic flyers is a known white supremacist group," the Anti-Defamation League's Central Pacific office, which is based in San Francisco, told KCBS Radio in an emailed statement on Monday afternoon. "Their bigotry is not limited to targeting the Jewish community, but also the LGBTQ community and the AAPI community, along with other marginalized groups. At a time of rising antisemitism around the nation, conspiratorial lies espoused in these flyers can inspire acts of violence."
Officers in the San Francisco Police Department's Special Investigations Division are investigating the flyers, the department told KCBS Radio in an emailed statement. Anyone with information can call the department at 415-575-4444, or text TIP411 by beginning the message with "SFPD."
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